Field of the Invention
The invention resides in the telecommunications field. More specifically, the invention pertains to a device in a digital telecommunication facility comprising one or more cordless mobile units. The mobile units and the base station to which the mobile units are linked or can be linked communicate in accordance with a TDMA process.
Such a telecommunication facility is, for example, a radio system operating in accordance with the DECT standard.
The basic configuration of such a radio system is illustrated in FIG. 1.
The system of FIG. 1 includes a base station B and a plurality of cordless telecommunication terminals TE1 to TEn. In the exemplary embodiment, the cordless telecommunication terminals TE1 to TEn are mobile telephones which are capable of communicating with the base station B by radio.
Instead of the cordless telecommunication terminals TE1 to TEn or in addition to these, cordless connection sockets can be used for connecting wire-connected telecommunication terminals. The cordless telecommunication terminals, the cordless connection sockets, and similar facilities constitute the above-mentioned mobile units.
The data transmission between the base station B and the mobile units takes place in units of so-called frames or, more accurately, TDMA frames. The acronym TDMA stands for xe2x80x9cTime Division Multiple Accessxe2x80x9d and signifies that the frames are structured in such a manner that the base station can communicate consecutively in successive time slots (or slots) of a respective frame with all mobile units that are registered with it. The communication can then be effected by utilizing the full bandwidth of the transmission channel. The TDMA process is sufficiently well known and will, therefore, not be explained in further detail. The basic structure of a (TDMA) frame suitable for performing the TDMA process will now be explained with reference to FIG. 2.
The frame shown in FIG. 2, i.e. the DECT full-slot frame considered here, is composed of 24 time slots or slots (full slots) of identical length. The first 12 of the 24 slots are transmitted from the base station to the mobile units and the subsequent, second 12 slots are transmitted from the mobile units to the base station. More accurately, the zeroth slot of each frame is transmitted from the base station to a zeroth mobile unit, the first slot is transmitted from the base station to a first mobile unit, the second slot is transmitted from the base station to a second mobile unit, . . . , the eleventh slot is transmitted from the base station to an eleventh mobile unit. Conversely, the twelfth slot is transmitted from the zeroth mobile unit to the base station, the thirteenth slot from the first mobile unit to the base station, the fourteenth slot from the second mobile unit to the base station, . . . , and the twenty-third slot is transmitted from the eleventh mobile unit to the base station.
One frame, i.e. the 24 slots of a frame, is transmitted within 10 ms. Each slot comprises 480 bits and is transmitted within around 417 xcexcs (within 416.66 xcexcs). As indicated in FIG. 2, the 480 bits are distributed over a 32-bit-wide sync field, a 388-bit-wide D field, a 4-bit-wide Z field, and a 56-bit-wide guard space field.
320 bits are reserved within the D field for the transmission of the user data which are actually of interest (for example speech data). The base station can thus send user data comprising 320 bits to each of the mobile units and receive the same amount of user data from each of the mobile units within 10 ms; the transmission rate for user data between the base station and each of the mobile units is therefore 32kbit/s in each direction.
The transmitting/receiving frequencies used for the exchange of information and data between a base station B and the mobile telephones TE1 . . . TEn can be selected from a total of 10 different frequencies. They are determined by the respective mobile units in dependence on the local transmitting and receiving conditions and can change from slot to slot for this reason.
The base station, especially, but also the mobile units which, for the sake of simplicity, will be called by the general term xe2x80x9cradio unitsxe2x80x9d in the text which follows, must therefore be capable of changing the transmitting/receiving frequency within a short time.
There are two different possibilities for changing the transmitting/receiving frequency in the radio units of a DECT system.
One of the possibilities consists in changing the frequency during the period of the aforementioned guard space field of a respective slot. This can be done because there are no user data transmitted in the guard space field. However, such a frequency change can only be performed with a relatively great effort because of the shortness of the available time.
The other possibility consists in providing (reserving) in each case a separate slot for the frequency change, namely a so-called blind slot. The radio units using this possibility of frequency changing are the so-called slow hopping radio units. In this type of radio units, a much longer time is available in each case for any change in transmitting/receiving frequency which may be required, as a result of which the radio units can be configured in a much simpler way. On the other hand, however, only each second slot of a frame (for example the slots with the odd numbers in the frame according to FIG. 2) can now be used for data transmission. This means that the number of mobile units that can be operated from one base station is reduced by half.
Neither of the prior art possibilities for changing the transmitting/receiving frequency is optimum. Both force upon the system disadvantages that must be accepted, and the elimination of which or compensation for which requires a considerable amount of effort.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a digital telecommunciation system, which overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art devices and methods of this general type and which reduces the effort for adjusting and correcting the transmitting/receiving frequency to a minimum.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a digital telecommunication facility, comprising a base station and one or more cordless mobile units adapted to communicate with one another by a TDMA process having defined TDMA frames. The base station and the at least one cordless mobile unit changing a transmitting/receiving frequency once per TDMA frame and retaining an adopted transmitting/receiving frequency for a time corresponding to a duration of one TDMA frame.
In other words, the mobile unit(s) and the base station are designed so that they change the transmitting/receiving frequency after each TDMA frame and retain the new transmitting/receiving frequency for the length of one TDMA frame.
Due to the less frequent changing of transmitting/receiving frequency it becomes possible to reduce the time to be provided for the changeover per unit time. Fewer and/or shorter slots, if any, are required to be reserved for changing and/or correcting the transmitting/receiving frequencies.
In accordance with an added feature of the invention, the base station and the at least one mobile unit have stored therein lists containing a sequence of various transmitting/receiving frequencies to follow one another.
In accordance with an additional feature of the invention, successive transmitting/receiving frequencies adopted and retained by the base station and the at least one cordless mobile unit are relatively far apart from one another within a given available communication bandwidth.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the at least one mobile unit and the base station output data received in a last-received undisturbed TDMA frame if an instantaneous transmitting/receiving frequency is disturbed.
In accordance with a further feature of the invention, the at least one mobile unit is adapted to individually select the transmitting/receiving frequency for setting up an initial connection with the base station. In a preferred embodiment, the mobile unit selects the transmitting/receiving frequency by taking into consideration an RSSI measurement.
In accordance with again a further feature of the invention, the mobile unit, upon requesting initial communication with the base station at a selected frequency, waits for a sync bearer at the selected frequency.
In accordance with a concomitant feature of the invention, the mobile unit then changes the selected transmitting/receiving frequency if no sync bearer is received within a predetermined time.
The frequency change taking place only once per frame does not lead to an impairment of the transmission quality or, if at all, to one that is neglibile and essentially not perceptible. This is because, if the transmitting/receiving frequency currently used is disturbed, only the data of a single frame (for example 10 ms) of the information to be transmitted, may not be transmitted without errors. One or more such interruptions are not or scarcely noticeable especially if the information transmitted or to be transmitted in the last frame is transmitted in the disturbed frame.
Thus, a telecommunication facility has been created in which the effort for adjusting and correcting the transmitting/receiving frequency can be reduced to a minimum.
The regular change in transmitting/receiving frequency has also been found to be advantageous in another respect: it makes it possible to utilize the frequency band available for operating the telecommunication facility essentially uniformly over its entire bandwidth. At a frame length of 10 ms, 100 different transmitting/receiving frequencies can be used per second. Averaged over time, the operation of the telecommunication facility appears as wideband noise in the frequency band used. This reliably eliminates the continuous use of a particular or a few frequencies, which especially interferes with other facilities.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a digital telecommunication facility, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.